Most ADHD research starts from what's broken. I wanted to start from what people actually needed.

Where it started

"How might we design an inclusive, customizable assistive tool that supports adult ADHD users' everyday routines without adding more overwhelm?"

Adults with ADHD rely on a patchwork of timers, calendars, alarms, and notes, but still struggle with time blindness, disorganization, scattered tools, and emotional overload. Existing apps often use deficit-based framing, are built without neurodivergent input, and don't account for cognitive load or executive function challenges.

• Understand: day-to-day experiences of adults with ADHD around focus, time, and technology.
• Co-create: a concept that consolidates key supports, time, focus, reminders, into one ADHD-aware assistant.
• Prototype: an interaction model for "nudges" that feels supportive, not punitive, grounded in inclusive design and accessibility guidelines (DIX, WCAG, Microsoft Inclusive Design).

Concept in one breath

Unscroll is an ADHD-friendly companion app that gently nudges adults from endless scrolling into small, manageable actions by combining schedules, app-usage limits, and stress-aware reminders in one place.

Research

Literature review

We examined HCI and ADHD research to understand gaps in existing tools.

• Observed

  Only a small fraction of HCI work mentions neurodivergence at all, and ADHD is a minority within that. Most ADHD technology research focuses on children, leaving adult needs under-served, and tools often assume a deficit model, ignoring social and environmental barriers.

• Inferred

  Effective support for adults must emphasize customization, real-time feedback, minimal distractions, and affordability. This pushed us toward the social model of disability and cognitive accessibility, framing ADHD not as an individual "failure," but as a mismatch between design and cognitive styles.

Mixed-methods user research

We used a mixed-methods approach to get both breadth and depth, a 16-person survey (Qualtrics) and 5 semi-structured interviews with adults with ADHD, looking for common patterns across attention, time, memory, task initiation, and anxiety.

• Attention & focus: distraction with boring or unstructured tasks, environmental noise, hyper-fixation.
• Time & task management: running late, losing track of time, feeling constantly behind.
• Memory: forgetting appointments, losing important objects.
• Task initiation & completion: procrastination on overwhelming or tedious tasks.
• Anxiety: rumination, self-doubt, feeling misunderstood.

People wanted tools that help with focus, time, anxiety, and memory, not just more to-do lists.

• Time blindness: difficulty sensing how long things take or when to switch tasks.
• Forgetfulness & disorganization: missed appointments, scattered reminders.
• Hyperfocus vs. avoidance: either stuck on one thing or avoiding tasks entirely.
• Emotional regulation: existing tools rarely address stress, guilt, or overwhelm.
• Scattered assistive tools: no single place that combines focus, reminders, and time tracking.

ADHD isn't automatically a user failure, sometimes the design itself creates the mismatch.

From research to concept

Ideation & participatory design

We synthesized the survey and interview data into four key challenge areas: task and time management, focus, memory, and anxiety. In ideation sessions, we generated "wild ideas" for how a tool could gently intervene when someone is doomscrolling or losing track of time.

• Co-selected the Unscroll concept directly with ADHD participants.
• Co-designed features: linking to calendar and schedule, app-usage limits and nudges during social media use, read-aloud schedules, gamified rewards and streaks.
• Refined examples of nudges that participants found motivating versus shaming.

Prototyped in Figma

Home screen, nudges, and gamification

Home screen: a snapshot of the day, upcoming events, top 3 priorities, and recent streaks, plus widgets for timers and the next nudge.

Three nudge intensities, so the app can match how urgent a moment actually is instead of treating every distraction the same way.

Task & schedule integration

• Users set priorities and time windows.
• Unscroll uses those priorities to decide when to nudge and how strongly.
• Users can mute or down-rank certain tasks to avoid overload.

Gamification

• Streaks for days with fewer dismissed nudges.
• Rewards for completing tasks on time.
• A place to store possible coupons or rewards from partner companies (future idea).

What makes it work

Interaction model

Click a card below to see each principle.

• Context-aware nudges +
• Snooze, override, or act +
• Soft, firm, then direct +
• Streaks & small wins +

What we delivered

• Delivered

  A research-grounded problem framing for adult ADHD and assistive technology, a participatorily co-created concept for Unscroll, a hi-fidelity prototype showing the home screen, nudge flows, scheduling logic, and gamification elements, and a clear interaction model for nudges (soft, firm, direct) tied to time, priority, and app usage.

The project was well received in class as a concrete example of applying accessibility principles and the social model of disability to cognitive differences, not just physical or sensory impairments.

Accessibility & inclusive design

• Treat ADHD as a disability interaction problem, a mismatch between user and environment, rather than an individual failure.
• Be open and scalable, designed to be affordable and also useful to non-ADHD users who struggle with focus.
• Follow inclusive design principles: design with the "extremes" (ADHD adults) to improve the experience for everyone.

What I learned

• From symptoms to systems. My psychology background helped me see ADHD not just as a list of symptoms, but as a set of interactions between attention, environment, and technology. Translating those dynamics into UX decisions, like nudge timing and wording, showed me how design can either reinforce stigma or reduce it.
• Participatory design. Working directly with adults with ADHD through interviews and co-design made it obvious that generic productivity apps miss emotional realities like shame, anxiety, and burnout. For neurodivergent users, co-creation isn't a nice-to-have, it's the only way to avoid harmful assumptions.
• Nudges must respect autonomy, not just behavior change. The same nudge can feel either supportive or controlling. Designing Unscroll taught me to focus on autonomy-supportive microcopy, flexible settings, and opt-out mechanisms so users feel in control, especially when their executive function already feels fragile.

View Prototype → Presentation →